YouTube via KTVU Fox 2 San Francisco
Summary List PlacementThe 25-year-old man arrested for riding in the back seat of a Tesla Model 3 while it semi-autonomously drove on the highway is a notorious Instagram wealth troll.
Param Sharma regularly posts selfies with stacks of $100 bills and photos from the cockpit of half-million-dollar Lamborghinis. His account is like a young, ultra-wealthy elite Reddit "starter pack."
"I have unlimited money to blow on Teslas," he told San Francisco Fox affiliate WTUV after the incident. "If you take away my Tesla, I will get another Tesla. That's how it works."
Param Sharma, who goes by "It's Lavish Bitch" on Instagram, is famous for these kinds of outlandish statements. It's all part of what he calls a "persona" created "for entertainment purposes only," according to his LinkedIn page.
He's been doing it for years, going back to 2013 when he trolled several celebrities.
"People feed off the crazy things I do, like pooping in sparkling water," Sharma told Vice in 2013. "I'm using wealth as comedy."
To that end, his Instagram feed is comically ostentatious.
One post features a hand full of gold-colored staples. In another, what appears to be two stacks of $100 bills wrapped in plastic shoved in his mouth.
The caption: "Mama always told me to eat my greens bitch."
While it's possible that Sharma's actually very wealthy, it's clear that he's intentionally playing a character: A wealthy troll, who both flaunts luxury items and mocks so-called "blue collar peasants" (people who aren't rich).
What's less funny is how dangerous it is to ride in the back seat of a moving car with no one behind the wheel, which is why the California Highway Patrol arrested Sharma earlier this week, charged him with two counts of reckless driving, and impounded his car.
California Highway Patrol
Though Tesla sells a "Full Self-Driving" package for its cars, the name is deceptive: It's a semi-autonomous system that still requires a person in the driver's seat paying attention.
The $10,000 feature enables Tesla's cars to change lanes, get on and off the highway, and recognize stop signs and traffic lights. It is unable to adapt to changing conditions, and Consumer Reports said the system performed inconsistently in testing.
"Most features within Tesla's Full Self-Driving Capability suite worked inconsistently," Consumer Reports wrote in October 2020. "At times, it also drove through stop signs, slammed on the brakes for yield signs even when the merge was clear, and stopped at every exit while going around a traffic circle."
In Tesla's own messaging, the car maker warns users of the Full Self-Driving feature to "not become complacent." The system "may do the wrong thing at the worst time," the disclaimer warns, "so you must always keep your hands on the wheel and pay extra attention to the road."
After being released from jail this week, Sharma arrived for the interview in what appeared to be a new Tesla Model 3, which he conducted from the back seat.
When asked if the car was new, he answered in character: "Yeah, I'm rich as fuck. I'm very rich."
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.
Got a tip? Contact Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email (bgilbert@insider.com), or Twitter DM (@realbengilbert). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.
NOW WATCH: We visited the Vespa headquarters in Italy to see how the world-famous scooters are made
See Also:
- Tesla hiked the prices of its most popular cars by $500 again — here's how much each model will set you back
- Tesla will pay $750,000 and build a solar roof to settle dozens of air-quality violations at its Fremont factory
- New electric vehicle charging research could allow drivers to power their cars as they drive on the highway